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Matt Helm #24
The Demolishers
Matt Helm was aware of Bultman – a legendary assassin, the leader of a group of fanatical revolutionaries, an ambitious criminal – but he had no business with taking him down. Until now. Bultman blew up a restaurant on the Florida coast full of innocent people, including Helm’s son. Now, it’s very personal.
347 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 12, 1987
43 people are currently reading
125 people want to read
About the author
Donald Hamilton
101 books107 followersDonald Hamilton was a U.S. writer of novels, short stories, and non-fiction about the outdoors. His novels consist mostly of paperback originals, principally spy fiction but also crime fiction and Westerns such as The Big Country. He is best known for his long-running Matt Helm series (1960-1993), which chronicles the adventures of an undercover counter-agent/assassin working for a secret American government agency.
Hamilton began his writing career in 1946, fiction magazines like Collier's Weekly and The Saturday Evening Post. His first novel Date With Darkness was published in 1947; over the next forty-six years he published a total of thirty-eight novels. Most of his early novels whether suspense, spy, and western published between 1954 and 1960, were typical paperback originals of the era: fast-moving tales in paperbacks with lurid covers. Several classic western movies, The Big Country and The Violent Men, were adapted from two of his western novels.
The Matt Helm series, published by Gold Medal Books, which began with Death of a Citizen in 1960 and ran for 27 books, ending in 1993 with The Damagers, was more substantial.
Helm, a wartime agent in a secret agency that specialized in the assassination of Nazis, is drawn back into a post-war world of espionage and assassination after fifteen years as a civilian. He narrates his adventures in a brisk, matter-of-fact tone with an occasional undertone of deadpan humor. He describes gunfights, knife fights, torture, and (off-stage) sexual conquests with a carefully maintained professional detachment, like a pathologist dictating an autopsy report or a police officer describing an investigation. Over the course of the series, this detachment comes to define Helm's character. He is a professional doing a job; the job is killing people.
Hamilton was a skilled outdoorsman and hunter who wrote non-fiction articles for outdoor magazines and published a book-length collection of them. For several years he lived on his own yacht, then relocated to Sweden where he resided until his death in 2006.
Hamilton began his writing career in 1946, fiction magazines like Collier's Weekly and The Saturday Evening Post. His first novel Date With Darkness was published in 1947; over the next forty-six years he published a total of thirty-eight novels. Most of his early novels whether suspense, spy, and western published between 1954 and 1960, were typical paperback originals of the era: fast-moving tales in paperbacks with lurid covers. Several classic western movies, The Big Country and The Violent Men, were adapted from two of his western novels.
The Matt Helm series, published by Gold Medal Books, which began with Death of a Citizen in 1960 and ran for 27 books, ending in 1993 with The Damagers, was more substantial.
Helm, a wartime agent in a secret agency that specialized in the assassination of Nazis, is drawn back into a post-war world of espionage and assassination after fifteen years as a civilian. He narrates his adventures in a brisk, matter-of-fact tone with an occasional undertone of deadpan humor. He describes gunfights, knife fights, torture, and (off-stage) sexual conquests with a carefully maintained professional detachment, like a pathologist dictating an autopsy report or a police officer describing an investigation. Over the course of the series, this detachment comes to define Helm's character. He is a professional doing a job; the job is killing people.
Hamilton was a skilled outdoorsman and hunter who wrote non-fiction articles for outdoor magazines and published a book-length collection of them. For several years he lived on his own yacht, then relocated to Sweden where he resided until his death in 2006.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 15, 2017
Five stars just ain't enough for this top-notch thriller. Usually after a few sequels a series gets old and stale and formulaic. Hamilton's Matt Helm series, however, just keeps getting better and better. Although this is one of the latest in the series, it just might be the best.
Hamilton throws a lot is stuff in this thriller and it all fits together and all works. We see the return of Helm's ex-wife and his son, all grown up and a desperate plea for vengeance. We have a deadly terrorist liberation group planting bombs and killing innocents. We have the old Mafia chief, his daughter targeted by assassins, his gorgeous sexy wife, and gun battles in the streets.
This is a terrific book, one that is almost impossible to put down. It may be referred to as spy fiction but it has more in common with hardboiled detective novels than Bond and company.
Hamilton throws a lot is stuff in this thriller and it all fits together and all works. We see the return of Helm's ex-wife and his son, all grown up and a desperate plea for vengeance. We have a deadly terrorist liberation group planting bombs and killing innocents. We have the old Mafia chief, his daughter targeted by assassins, his gorgeous sexy wife, and gun battles in the streets.
This is a terrific book, one that is almost impossible to put down. It may be referred to as spy fiction but it has more in common with hardboiled detective novels than Bond and company.
November 24, 2024
Matt Helm gets kind of creepy in this one, as he lusts after his recently widowed daughter-in-law. Recently widowed because she and Matthew Helm, Jr. were caught in a terrorist blast at a restaurant in Florida. Matthew, Jr (who we haven’t seen in a Matt Helm book since “The Removers,” when he was eight years old) was killed in the blast. Sandra, his wife, was seriously injured.
Matt Helm, Sr., rushes to the scene, but it doesn’t take him long to get ideas about Sandra. Recently-widowed Sandra has ideas about Matt, Sr. as well, but Helm manages to resist her advances. He does take her on a needless road trip to New England—to investigate a similar terrorist attack in Rhode Island. When they end up having to share a motel room it begins to feel like you’re reading Donald Hamillton’s version of “Lolita."
Considering the rather unconventional way Matt and Sandra are mourning the death of Matthew, Jr., and considering the age difference between Matt and Sandra, it all just comes across as, well, creepy. Fortunately for all involved, Sandra gets shot in the arm and has to be hospitalized. Dana Delgado steps in—someone a decade or so closer to Helm in age—and is perfectly willing to take Sandra's place, now that Sandra is safely out of the picture.
The book improves a bit when Helm finally starts focusing on his actual mission, rather than the burning question of whether to make time with his son's widow. But even this part of the book falls short of the usual Donald Hamilton standard. Helm's assignment is to wipe out the leadership of a left-wing terrorist group based in Puerto Rico. But Helm's role in all of this is insignificant. He's basically an add-on for a mission already in progress. He kills a few people, but most of them would have died anyway. There's no real point to his being there.
This isn't to say that the action sequences are poorly done. They're actually quite exciting. And, thoughout the book we get many of the things fans would expect in a Matt Helm adventure. Vivid local color. Helm's views on the latest in women's fashions (he describes a woman dressed beautifully "with the glaring exception of the jeans, faded and ripped and frayed, that made her look like a bum from waist to ankles"). Loving descriptions of all kinds weaponry. Plus a remarkably high body-count.
We also get some of things that get to be rather annoying in the Matt Helms books. Virtual strangers opening up to Matt and telling them their life stories for no particular reason. Conflicts with arrogant and self-important agents from other federal agencies that Helm has to put up with. Women who become instantly enamored of Matt and start calling him "darling"--I word that I was only hearing on "Dallas" by the late '80s when this book was first published.
Matt Helm, Sr., rushes to the scene, but it doesn’t take him long to get ideas about Sandra. Recently-widowed Sandra has ideas about Matt, Sr. as well, but Helm manages to resist her advances. He does take her on a needless road trip to New England—to investigate a similar terrorist attack in Rhode Island. When they end up having to share a motel room it begins to feel like you’re reading Donald Hamillton’s version of “Lolita."
Considering the rather unconventional way Matt and Sandra are mourning the death of Matthew, Jr., and considering the age difference between Matt and Sandra, it all just comes across as, well, creepy. Fortunately for all involved, Sandra gets shot in the arm and has to be hospitalized. Dana Delgado steps in—someone a decade or so closer to Helm in age—and is perfectly willing to take Sandra's place, now that Sandra is safely out of the picture.
The book improves a bit when Helm finally starts focusing on his actual mission, rather than the burning question of whether to make time with his son's widow. But even this part of the book falls short of the usual Donald Hamilton standard. Helm's assignment is to wipe out the leadership of a left-wing terrorist group based in Puerto Rico. But Helm's role in all of this is insignificant. He's basically an add-on for a mission already in progress. He kills a few people, but most of them would have died anyway. There's no real point to his being there.
This isn't to say that the action sequences are poorly done. They're actually quite exciting. And, thoughout the book we get many of the things fans would expect in a Matt Helm adventure. Vivid local color. Helm's views on the latest in women's fashions (he describes a woman dressed beautifully "with the glaring exception of the jeans, faded and ripped and frayed, that made her look like a bum from waist to ankles"). Loving descriptions of all kinds weaponry. Plus a remarkably high body-count.
We also get some of things that get to be rather annoying in the Matt Helms books. Virtual strangers opening up to Matt and telling them their life stories for no particular reason. Conflicts with arrogant and self-important agents from other federal agencies that Helm has to put up with. Women who become instantly enamored of Matt and start calling him "darling"--I word that I was only hearing on "Dallas" by the late '80s when this book was first published.
November 19, 2023
The plot of this book is Ridiculous. This is by far the worst Donald Hamilton Matt Helm Book that I have ever read.
Matt Helm is supposed to be this Super Secret Assassin but everyone knows who he is??? To protect his Family he can not be around them... Ridiculous.
In the real world if his cover was blown he would just be Assassinated. This sadly does happen. No Secret undercover Agent could stay in the Agency after their cover was blown.
The unbelievable Plot has Matt Helm and his Agency working with the Mafia to eliminate a Terrorist organization. This would not happen. Terrorist Organizations are part of the Mafia Drug trade. They sell drugs to fund their Terrorist operations. I know this first hand.
Donald Hamilton obviously did No research before writing this Book to try to make it Believable.
He has Government Agents threatening to kill each other in an overly long scene. The Bad DEA agents, like everyone else, knew who Matt Helm was and the Ultra Secret Agency he worked for...
This type of Agency is Not available for DEA agents to (These Agents are so classified Congress is forbidden to know their identities. It is Treason to copy their names down.) know about. They would Not have any access to this Agency.
The Book is so far from being credible I had a hard time sticking with it.
This book is very boring. There are too many long meaningless conversations.
The little bit of Action in this Book is Not realistic. Nothing in this Book is realistic.
Matt Helm is supposed to be this Super Secret Assassin but everyone knows who he is??? To protect his Family he can not be around them... Ridiculous.
In the real world if his cover was blown he would just be Assassinated. This sadly does happen. No Secret undercover Agent could stay in the Agency after their cover was blown.
The unbelievable Plot has Matt Helm and his Agency working with the Mafia to eliminate a Terrorist organization. This would not happen. Terrorist Organizations are part of the Mafia Drug trade. They sell drugs to fund their Terrorist operations. I know this first hand.
Donald Hamilton obviously did No research before writing this Book to try to make it Believable.
He has Government Agents threatening to kill each other in an overly long scene. The Bad DEA agents, like everyone else, knew who Matt Helm was and the Ultra Secret Agency he worked for...
This type of Agency is Not available for DEA agents to (These Agents are so classified Congress is forbidden to know their identities. It is Treason to copy their names down.) know about. They would Not have any access to this Agency.
The Book is so far from being credible I had a hard time sticking with it.
This book is very boring. There are too many long meaningless conversations.
The little bit of Action in this Book is Not realistic. Nothing in this Book is realistic.
January 2, 2025
Oh God, please make it stop. I think there may only be 2-3 left from the original canon. That'll be it for me once I get there. This is as bad as every other Matt Helm book I have read. Unless you have read the previous books, don't start here, in fact don't start at all. Do something else, anything else, play tiddly-winks, watch Duke basketball games, play soccer, pick your nose, anything but read this crap.
August 23, 2021
Matt's oldest son is killed by a terrorist bombing while out with his wife who happens to be the daughter of a notorious drug dealer. She survived the bombing. Was she the intended target or Helm's son? Matt is determined to get retribution regardless.
May 20, 2017
A solid Helm assignment
Not the usual plot of other Helm novels. A little something different. Hamilton doesn't disappoints as usual. I highly recommend.
Not the usual plot of other Helm novels. A little something different. Hamilton doesn't disappoints as usual. I highly recommend.
February 24, 2019
Revenge time
A bit of a convoluted plot this time, involving an old opponent, terrorists, and fallen family members. And except for the fallen, naturally Matt goes after them all.
A bit of a convoluted plot this time, involving an old opponent, terrorists, and fallen family members. And except for the fallen, naturally Matt goes after them all.
April 1, 2019
One of the better ones in the series.
October 23, 2014
A good read that explores some of Helm's sentimental side. He's the cold blooded assassin, but he's still human & has his quirks, the pivot point of many of the novels. In this case, they're the basis. Very well done with some interesting opinions, as always.
I found them especially interesting in light of several articles I read today about how the FBI has deprioritized searching for missing persons & identity theft in favor of looking into music & other computer pirating, something that should be a civil matter. Not an exact fit, but the all consuming national fear of drugs is similar in many ways & has tied up resources that could have been better used elsewhere, not to mention eroded our civil rights.
Anyway, a good read & now I'm on to The Frighteners!
I found them especially interesting in light of several articles I read today about how the FBI has deprioritized searching for missing persons & identity theft in favor of looking into music & other computer pirating, something that should be a civil matter. Not an exact fit, but the all consuming national fear of drugs is similar in many ways & has tied up resources that could have been better used elsewhere, not to mention eroded our civil rights.
Anyway, a good read & now I'm on to The Frighteners!
November 12, 2013
Although I am not a big fan of this genre, I did enjoy this book. Very creative.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews